Word Cloud of Medtronic Mission Statement

"Here’s an experiment for you. Pull together your company’s latest annual report, its mission statement, and your CEOs last few blog posts. Read through these documents and note the key phrases. Make a list of oft-repeated words. Now do a little content analysis. What are the goals and ideas that get a lot of airtime in your company? It’s probably notions like superiority, advantage, leadership, differentiation, value, focus, discipline, accountability, and efficiency. Nothing wrong with this, but do these goals quicken your pulse? Do they speak to your heart? Are they “good” in any cosmic sense?" 
-The Hole in the Soul of Business By Gary Hamel

The Kingkiller Chronicles

Just for fun I created a word cloud of the book - The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. It's the first book of The Kingkiller Chronicles: Day One

Business Cards IRL

Are business cards in-real-life (IRL) on the verge of extinction?

I could not find any statistics on the the number of business cards printed over time, but I have to believe that other, easier ways of sharing contact information in electronic form has caused a decline in business card printing.

Even business cards IRL are making use of electronic data transfer. Frank, an electrical engineering student at the University of Waterloo created a USB business card that will type out contact information when you plug it into a USB port.

One issue that plagues sharing contact information electronically is the many non-standard ways in which we can do this. A variety of sharing technologies (like BlueTooth, email, and apps) on a variety of devices (PCs, smartphones tablets, etc.) result in too many options.

I'v been experimenting with using a QR code (also known as a 2D code) to share contact information. The use of QR code scanning and deciphering is now ubiquitous on smartphones in countries like Japan.

What do you get when you ask Vladstudio to cross a QR code Vcard and an iPhone lock screen wallpaper? A virtual business card.

It is easy to generate your own virtual business card with a free QR code generator. Use your virtual business card as a wallpaper on your smartphone and it's always available to scan by business contacts with a QR code scanner like Scan. Even smartphone apps like Google and Bing will scann and decipher these virtual business cards.

QR code ubiiquity in the USA may take a while longer, but I'm betting that it it happens soon.

Interactive Marketing in a Highly Regulated Industry

I have been asked to speak on a panel at the 2010 MIMA Summit in Minneapolis regarding Interactive Marketing in a Highly Regulated Industry. The case study track breakout session is described as follows:

Health care is a highly reg­u­lated indus­try. Let’s say that again with feel­ing: Healthcare is a HIGHLY reg­u­lated indus­try. That heav­ily influ­ences what the mar­ket­ing and public rela­tions folks can say and do. Yet despite the legal­is­tic hand­cuffs and road­blocks, these inter­ac­tive practitioners are cre­at­ing mea­sur­able results. Healthcare pro­fes­sion­als and non-health peeps alike can learn from their expe­ri­ences. If your man­age­ment thinks inter­ac­tive is weird and scary, just look at what these folks over­come with every day to achieve results!

I would have to say that the description of the panel is pretty damned good. The emphasis on "highly regulated industry" is spot on and I couldn't have stressed it better. However, given this environment what are companies like Medtronic, Children’s Hospital, and the American Red Cross doing in Interactive?

I'm speaking for the medical device industry here. Indeed we create measurable results, but evaluating risk is a big factor when it comes to pushing the envelope. The risk-averse nature of our industry and the lack of clear guidance from the FDA (so far) in the area of marketing and advertising in interactive media can encumber innovative marketing. The paradigm shift the Internet represents to our industries is inevitable and these challenges will have to be contended with in one way or another.

I believe my fellow panelists agree that we have to look to the positive in our efforts. We will continue to educate our organizations and work with the regulating bodies to have the engagement and dialog with our markets the online channels promise.

Interactive marketers are fighting the good fight in regulated organizations - It's been 10 years since the Cluetrain Manifesto - are we taking delivery yet? To find out attend our breakout session - Interactive Marketing in The Healthcare Industry

Open Letter To Netflix

Netflix recently released an official iPhone app. Andy Boxall in his iPhoneFreak Blog post "Netflix Comes to the iPhone" says:

"Previously only available for the iPad, the official Netflix app is now available for the iPhone too, which should see a massive increase in both the amount of downloads and the amount of people enjoying streaming content out and about."

All well and good Andy, but I have to disagree... to a degree. In response I have "penned" the following open letter to Netflix.
---
Dear Netflix,

I know you are contending with some privacy issues in your attempts to serve your customers in an innovative way. You will be relieved to hear that I'm not writing to you to discuss these issues.

Your new official iPhone app enables movie viewing on the iPhone and iTouch platforms, but I don't really think I would seriously watch a full length movie on any of these small format platforms. Maybe it's because my eyes are not what they used to be, but I prefer a larger screen that I can view with others. Call me old fashioned, but I will be surprised if there are a compelling number of users that will watch a one hour TV show or two hour feature film on their small iPhone screens. The iPad would be another story.

However, I think you could do something more compelling and innovative with movie trailers, which are short and lend themselves to a quick review to determine if you want to watch the associated full length movie. Actually, this could be the goal of the app. Heck, I have good friends that seem to enjoy movie trailers over the full length movies themselves.

How about an app that basically enabled the user to manage and view a playlist of movie and/or TV show trailers? It could have some of the following features:

• Add the movie based on the trailer you like to your queue.
• The ability to review the anticipated rating or set your rating of the movie based on the trailer.
• Browse or search trailer playlists by director, actor or genre.
  
• Create your own trailer playlist to share with your friends (social media).
  
• Comment on, subscribe or favorite trailer playlists by others (social networking).

I'm sure others will add additional ideas in the comments below. Please consider these ideas and if you like feel free to name this feature "Wardo's Trailer Playlists".

I continue to be a big fan of your service. Please keep up the good work.

Warm regards,

Ward Tongen

Are Group Coupons Really Such A Good Deal?

Here are six tips and techniques to help you make the most out of group coupons like Groupon, LivingSocial and dozens of smaller sites:

1. Stay local - don't accept coupons outside your normal area of travel unless you are planning to use a coupon during travel.
2. Beware of un-savvy vendors - I assumed that I could use my iPhone app to redeem my coupon only to find out at a local restaurant that they required a printed coupon only. I was turned away. Also be aware that some businesses struggle to handle the surge in customers.
3. Don't collect too many coupons - You can go a little crazy when you are bombarded everyday with such unbeatable bargains. My coupons soon started to stack up and I was in danger of not being able to redeem them all in time. Think twice before buying - pace yourself.
4. Read the fine print and note the expiration date- I repeat "Read the fine print" It's usually short and to the point and may contain rules and conditions that are crucial in making sure your redemption is valid.
5. Return to businesses you like - One of the compelling reasons small businesses use these group coupon services is to drive customers to their stores & restaurants. If you like the product or service it shouldn't be hard to patronize that business again.
   
6. Tell your friends online or otherwise. Buy for a friend. Use the share feature for a free deal. Most of the deals are for local establishments. At LivingSocial, the deal might even end up being free for you if you recruit enough people to the same deal. For some offers, you need as few as three buddies.

Use the latest craze among price-conscious consumers wisely. This combination of social media and commerce may change the way you shop.

Unbelievable Unconferencing at Unsummit 4

UnSummit is an alternative, "unconference," not unlike a BarCamp. That means full participation, full dissemination and free admission — all the things that traditional conferences are not. -Unsummit.org

I have been attending unconferences since the first Minnebar back in the day and I love the refreshing format. An unconference is where people talk with each other as opposed to at each other. New paradigm topics such as the ones that appear on the schedule of the unsummit should not take place in rigid, old paradigm formats. We are moving from a one-way event to a two-way experience.

This event, excuse me... experience, is free thanks to generous sponsors and also held on a weekend day. Even though it is free I think the attendees that give up part of their summer Saturday are more passionate and more highly participatory than the average conference goer.

Next year perhaps we can take a few more ideas into the format. I plucked the following participatory formats from a white paper titled "Possibilities For Transformational Conferences" by Tree Bressen with Debby Sugarman and Sunrise Facilitation:

• Attendees Interview Each Other
• Presenters Learn From Participants
• Fishbowl - small group of people speak together while others listen and witness
• Interview The Panelists
• Panelist Circles - panelists go out into the audience and form circles people to talk more
• Storytelling
• Speed Geeking - basically this is musical chars with panelists

Did you know that most unconference features match the characteristics of the traditional science fiction convention held since the 1930's? We are living science fiction every day. The future is now and I for one love it.